Paul Fazio, CEO of Sonny’s Enterprises Inc. proudly accepted the Broward County public schools Project-Based Learning Partnership Award during the Community Involvement awards ceremony held on April 10, 2013. As an educational partner since 2004 to the FIRST Robotics team and the Machining Apprenticeship program at the Atlantic Technical Center and Technical High School, Sonny’s employees served as mentors while providing professional, hands-on training to students.
The FIRST Robotics team builds robots for competitive events that have resulted in numerous regional and state awards being received. The original nine team members from 2004 now hold undergraduate degrees with five in the field of Engineering.
The team now averages 25 members who, like their predecessors, are pursuing degrees in the fields of science and engineering. As the largest apprenticeship program in the state of Florida, the Machining Apprenticeship program trains 30 local individuals each year. Within the last five years, 100 percent of the students who completed the Machining and Drafting programs pursued their undergraduate degrees with 76 percent selecting engineering as their major.
"The depth of knowledge and talent these young professionals have is amazing. We are truly honored to work with such outstanding individuals," said Fazio. "Sonny’s is proud of the accomplishments the students in these two outstanding programs have achieved and fully supports preparing today’s youth for tomorrow’s challenging workforce."